Close Encounters
by raconteur-wannabe
Summary: Kirihara x Sakuno, kirisaku In which Kirikara Akaya meets a certain pigtailed girl...revised Chapter 2
1. Chapter 1

Author's notes: This is based on the manga, since I like it far better than the anime, especially the characterization of Sakuno and Kirihara. I have hopes to make it into a series, depending on how people like it.

Chapter 1

Kirihara Akaya quickly slinked away from the Seigaku tennis courts, trying to put as much distance as possible between himself and the fiasco he caused. He for one didn't want to suffer the brunt of Tezuka's wrath, unlike those poor luckless Seigaku students.

"Uggh…it's just bad luck today!"

Earlier, he overslept on the bus to Kakinoki, thereby missing his school's practice match. He then inadvertently started the ruckus currently unfolding on the tennis courts, and Tezuka's foreboding expression had compelled him to make a quick exit before he found himself running laps with everyone else. Now he found himself the owner of one of Seigaku's tennis balls.

He stuffed the ball in his pocket. Knowing Tezuka, the captain would have every ball accounted for, but he just didn't quite have the courage to go back. He didn't think he would get off lightly if he did, and he needed his body in one piece if he was going to survive vice-captain Sanada's wrath.

He morosely wandered around the school, hoping to find the way he went in. He found himself lost instead. Seigaku had a big campus, nearly matching Rikkai in size.

Pok! Pok!

Akaya heard the unmistakable sounds of a tennis ball landing repeatedly against a wall. Hoping that it wasn't one of the tennis club members who had been on the courts, he cautiously peeked around the side of the building.

"Whew!" He sighed in relief. "It's only a girl." One who was earnestly practicing her forehand swing.

Akaya scrutinized her closely. She had terrible form and worse reflexes. Despite her awkwardness, she gamely went after the ball, every sign of concentration evident in her flushed face.

The girl's pig-tails bounced up and down as she swung. Not fashionable at all, he decided. She didn't look very athletic either, but that must be why she was trying so hard. On the whole, she was somewhat plain-looking, expect that for some inexplicable reason her clumsiness was undeniably cute…

Eh? Where'd he come up with that? "Come on, Akaya," he reprimanded himself. "You were never one to ogle girls."

Absorbed in watching her ungainly form, he almost missed the speeding tennis ball that headed for his face. His lightning-fast reflexes saved him, as he quickly twisted his face away from the incoming missile and snatched the ball in midair.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" The girl, blushing, apologized profusely, "Are you okay? I'm so sorry!"

"Nah, I'm fine." He dismissively waved her away.

Sakuno examined him, wondering what an outsider was doing here in Seigaku. She noticed the tennis racket bag slung over his arm. Probably one of the competitors scouting the male tennis team, she concluded.

"Are you looking for the tennis courts? It's over…"

"No!" Akaya hastily interrupted her. _Anywhere BUT back there._

"Actually, I'm looking for the way out." He smiled, putting on what he hoped was his best charm. 'Would you mind terribly if you could direct me?"

Sakuno gave him the directions, perplexed at the panicky expression she'd seen on his face.

"Umm…" she said shyly. "Can I have my tennis ball back?"

"This? Oh yeah, sure." He casually tossed the ball in her direction. She ended up fumbling the ball, sending it rolling back in his direction.

_Definitely a clumsy one. _

He sighed, picked up the ball, and walked towards her. "Here ya go." He deposited the ball in her palm, observing that he had at least 15 centimeters on her.

Sakuno blushed furiously at the unexpected closeness, incoherently stammering out apologies.

Akaya raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. So she was a shy one, huh? He smiled mischievously. Maybe he could have some fun…

"So..you look like you could use some help in tennis. Want me to help you out a bit? I'm not half-bad, if I do say so myself." Akaya silently congratulated himself on his modesty. After all, what girl could resist such a modest invitation?

"Umm..that's all right…I…"

"That's all right," he overrode her stuttering protests. "It's no trouble at all. So how 'bout it?" He leaned close to her, observing her discomfort in glee…

Except that glancing at his watch, he realized that he had completely forgotten the time.

"Damn!" I'm going to miss the bus!" He quickly ran away, calling out "thanks" behind his back.

Sakuno watched him run away. "What a strange guy…" She blushed again, remembering his uncomfortable proximity.

"Though a little scary, too…" Despite his seeming cheerfulness, he had an aura of intimidation around him, like the ones she'd felt emanating from her senpai…

She furiously shook her head. "Sakuno, concentrate on your tennis!" she scolded herself, willing her mind to turn back to her swing.

"Ah! There's my way out!" Akaya sped up when he saw the open gate. In his rush, he blindly stumbled into someone, and they both fell heavily to the ground. "Hey, kid, you all right?" he asked the boy.

"Yeah," the kid mumbled.

Akaya noticed the tennis racket slung over the kid's back. "So you're in the club huh? Kinda late, aren't you…"

Well, he thought, as good a time as any to return the ball. He casually tossed the ball in the boy's direction. "Return this on your way!"

To his surprise, the kid caught the ball on the face of his racket, not even bothering to glance back.

Oh? Pretty good, he mused. _Maybe Seigaku isn't that weak this year._

Minutes later, Akaya was once again parked on the bus. Well, might as well take a nap, he decided. As he lounged back in his chair, his thoughts drifted to images of a short, pig-tailed hair girl… She was awfully cute, except that…

The sudden realization jolted him back into awareness.

"I forgot to get her name!"


	2. Chapter 2

After a long hiatus, I've decided to get back into fanfiction. This was something written before I stoped, but I think it's best to ease slowly into things. I had a lot of things planned for this story, just never got around to executing them…

"Ahhh, eating is the best!" Bunta sighed in contentment as he and Akaya walked out of the sushi bar.

"Yeah, I was starving to death back there," the curly-haired boy agreed.

After finishing Rikkai's latest match against some no-name, inconsequential opponent, Akaya had suggested going to a sushi bar to grab a bite to eat. Being the voracious eater that he was, Bunta eagerly took Akaya up on his suggestion. Currently, they were walking back to the train station after eating a meal the size of which could have easily fed a horse, much less two teenagers.

"It was a pretty exhausting session, since Renji made us all wear wrist and ankle weights throughout the matches," Bunta said, popping a stick of his customary bubble gum into his mouth.

"I'm still pretty thirsty though. Hey, could you wait a bit while I grab something to drink?" Akaya asked.

They paused in front of a vending machine located offside the curb, where Akaya proceeded to buy a bottle of Aquarius, his favorite sports drink.

"I wonder what Yanagi-senpai has planned for practice tomorrow?" the boy mused as he drank.

"Whatever he has, it'll probably include of that new and improved Restorative Herbal Mix …"

They both shuddered at the thought. Contrary to its name, Renji's "special" supplement never failed to incapacitate anyone unfortunate enough to ingest it. So far, no one on the team had died after being "persuaded" to drink the concoction, but everyone agreed it was only a matter of time.

"I wonder if there's anything in the world that tastes as bad as what he feeds us…" Bunta wondered out loud as they rounded the street corner.

Sakuno shot frequent glances at her watch as she ran down the street. _Tomo-chan's going to kill me, _she thought frantically. She had promised last week that she would go shopping with her best friend at the popular new mall that opened in . However, her parents kept her busy doing chores the entire morning, so by now she was already running 20 minutes late.

She turned blindly around the corner, and promptly crashed into a solid, unyielding body.

She stumbled backwards, arms waving as she tried to keep her balance. A hand shot out and grabbed her elbow, steadying her.

Sakuno quickly recovered her footing, blushing in embarrassment at her clumsiness. She turned towards her rescuer, automatically mouthing an apology.

"I'm sorry, please excuse me…"

The words died on her lips.

In front of her stood one very soaked male teenager, who did not look happy about the fact that most of his drink was now dumped on his shirt. His companion stood off to the side, hands covering his mouth, hiding what sounded suspiciously like a giggle.

Sakuno gulped in fear. She wondered if she could just sneak away, or even better, find a rock to cower under, but she knew it was just wishful thinking on her part. There was to be no escape anytime soon.

She fervently hoped that Tomo-chan was going to forgive her for not showing up at all.

Akaya sighed mentally in exasperation. His shirt was now drenched in sticky, sweet-smelling liquid, and he was miles away from home.

_Great, just what I need. Someone to run into me, and dump my own drink on me._ Even if the perpetrator was a girl, he was NOT going to let her off lightly.

He glared fiercely at her, sizing her up. She was a tiny little thing, with hair set in two long braids…

"It's you!" they both exclaimed at the same time.

"Figures we'll meet again. Although…" Akaya wryly observed, glancing down at his shirt, "I'd never thought it'll be in a situation like this." 

Sakuno blushed profusely. "I'm sorry about your shirt…it's all my fault." She rummaged in her pocket and pulled out a handkerchief.

"Here. For your shirt…"

"Nah, it's fine." Akaya refused the little scrap of cloth she held out to him. He took his towel out from his gym bag and tried to dry his shirt as best he could.

"I'll be all right, I guess. As long as I take a shower when I get home. And stop laughing, senpai!" he snapped at his teammate, who had long since given up on secrecy and was now laughing outright.

Akaya suddenly recalled a certain lapse of his... "Oh, by the way," he said almost sheepishly, "I'm Kirihara Akaya."

"And I'm his senpai, Marui Bunta. We go to Rikkai Dai Fuzoku," chimed in the magenta-haired kid, pointing to his uniform.

"Sakuno Ryuuzaki. Nice to meet you." Sakuno bowed formally.

A moment of silent awkwardness fell upon the three. Taking advantage of the lull, Bunta suddenly dragged Akaya to his side.

"Hey, Akaya, how do you know this girl?" Bunta whispered into his ear.

"Nothing special…I met her during that time I ended up at Seigaku. Why do you ask?" Akaya regarded his senpai suspiciously.

"Oh, nothing much…" Bunta smiled teasingly. "Just never thought you would be the type to hook up girls…"

"What is that suppose to mean!?"

"Awww, don't make such a fuss - I was kidding. Well, why don't you ask her out on a date? Since you're so popular with the girls… and she's pretty cute, too."

"Shhh! She'll hear you, stupid senpai!"

Sakuno looked apprehensively at the teenagers whispering furiously in front of her. She wanted to leave desperately, but she didn't think it was polite to run away in the middle of a conversation. Besides, "he" was probably likely to haul her back and demand some kind of compensation.

Akaya approached Sakuno, nervousness threatening to overwhelm him. His pride refused to let him back down from Bunta's subtle challenge, but now he was stuck in a quandary.

For despite Ayakya's vehement denial, Bunta was actually right. The truth was, his experience with girls was limited to teasing classmates and fending off advances from the team's ubiquitous female fans. None of the above had ever prepared him for asking a girl out on an actual, honest-to-goodness date.

"Umm…" he stuttered, "…that is…" He racked his brain desperately for inspiration; surely there was some pretext he could use to ask her out! Finally, he latched on to the only thing he could come up with - tennis. Staring at Sakuno nervously, he blurted out, "So how's your tennis? Would you like me to help you out sometime?"

"You mean…a coaching session?"

"Yeah, that's it! Don't worry about my skills, 'cause I'm really good. And after all, I said I'll help you out."

"But you must be pretty busy… besides, I don't live around here…"

"About that…well…"

Watching his kouhai flounder about, Bunta decided some help from a more experienced senpai was in order. He interrupted the conversation, saying, "Aww, Sakuno, it's not everyday Akaya gets to go on a date with a pretty girl! Besides, he needs something to cheer him up, looking like this…"

Sakuno blushed furiously, while Akaya unobtrusively dug his elbow into the cheeky teenager's ribs, threatening him a deadly glare. Bunta, choosing to ignore the hint, smiled innocently in response.

Her cheeks crimson with embarrassment, Sakuno pondered the situation doubtfully. She didn't think it was such a good idea to say yes to someone she'd only known for five minutes. However, it wasn't her nature to be rude. Also, as Bunta pointed out, the boy's current state was her fault, and she felt obliged to do something….

She did really need the help, though. Her grandmother was always busy with the tennis club, and Ryoma didn't have any spare time for teaching now that the district preliminaries were well under way. Who knows, the session might not turn out so bad after all? Sure, he still radiated intimidation, but he actually looked quite harmless now. And those curly hair and green eyes did have a certain appeal…

She instantly cut off that train of thought and reprimanded herself severely. _Stop that imagination of yours, Sakuno! Don't think about such silly things!_

"Well, if it's not a bother to you, Kirihara-san…" she answered tentatively, hoping that she wasn't going to regret her decision later.

Akaya blinked in surprise, hardly believing his good luck. Afraid that the girl would change her mind, he hastily assuaged her concerns and even had the presence of mind to obtain an exchange of numbers.

"Now if you'll excuse me, I really have to go…" Sakuno ran off, her mind still dazed from the encounter.

After she left, Akaya shot a glare at Bunta. "Why did you have to butt in!?"

Bunta shrugged. "Just thought you needed some help."

"I can do without your "help," thank you very much."

"It worked anyways, right?" Bunta suddenly paused, a mischievous twinkle appearing in his eyes. "Ya'know, what do you say to treating your senpai to an all-you-can-eat buffet?"

"Why should I do that!?"

"Wait till I tell Genichirou about your date…"

"Fine, fine. Just shut up."

"Yeah! You're such a good kouhai." The third-year happily slung his arms around Akaya's shoulders. The second-year walked on morosely, thinking regretfully of his soon-to-be-gone monthly allowance.

"Now let's go, I'm getting hungry already!"

"What!? You just ate 20 minutes ago!"

Misc. Notes:

1. No, I don't really know what Kirihara's favorite sports drink is. I made that up. And I made up the Renji Herbal Mix too. I claim creative license.

2. indicates a location. Assume it's somewhere in Kanagawa… If you read classic English novels, you'll see this used a lot.


End file.
